DAVID MOYES celebrated his second anniversary as Everton manager in statistically satisfactory fashion.

DAVID MOYES celebrated his second anniversary as Everton manager in statistically satisfactory fashion.

The Blues enjoyed back-to-back league wins for just the second time this season.

But if their ambitious young boss looks beyond the bare details of Saturday's scrambled defeat of Portsmouth - and it would take an obsessive Evertonian to choose to analyse anything from a desperately scrappy football match - he would find other reasons to be cheerful.

Thomas Gravesen is a much-maligned figure in Everton's midfield. But there is no doubt that when the maverick Dane is absent, he leaves a Grand Canyon-sized hole to fill.

Lee Carsley looked favourite to step in on Saturday, while other speculation suggested a more central role for Kevin Kilbane and the return on the left of James McFadden.

Moyes, however, is not one for playing players out of position unless absolutely necessary.

He selected Alex Nyarko. Utterly out of favour since the FA Cup replay defeat at Fulham, and a bit-part player at best this season, the enigmatic African did not let him down.

For the first 45 minutes he showed a polish and a precision in his passing out of line with a poor spectacle, then in the second he dug in, won a couple of tackles and even showed a willingness to get forward and try to pinch a goal.

To put things into context, Nyarko was marginally Everton's best performer in a game against a team which hadn't won away all season.

But his display still suggested he could have some part to play in Everton's immediate future - and for eliciting even that from a man who declared he would never play for Everton again two years ago, David Moyes deserves credit.

On occasions Nyarko turned back the clock even further than that shirty Highbury afternoon.

Anyone prepared to cast their minds back to the summer of 2001 will recall Everton acquiring a man Arsene Wenger apparently wanted to take to Highbury, a player said to resemble Patrick Vieira not just in body shape but in style and ability.

An outrageously inventive back-heel against Manchester City, a flying header at Plymouth and a long-range strike in the same match left Evertonians eager to see him in the heat of real battle.

The promise even carried on into the Premiership, Nyarko shimmying and sashaying to the edge of the Tottenham penalty area where a blistering strike gave him his first - and so far only - senior Everton goal.

An ill-judged experiment at centre-half may have contributed to his confusion after that, and by the end of the season he cut a forlorn figure.

But Moyes is stuck with him, and at least appears to have found some use for a player who, let us not forget, cost the club the sizeable sum of #4.5m.

While Nyarko may have a role to play in the short-term future of Everton, it is to be hoped Wayne Rooney represents the long-term vision.

Enduring one of his less effective afternoons for more than an hour, he still produced the gilding of class which was the difference between Everton and the terminally travel sick Portsmouth.

There were still two defenders barring his path to goal when Tomasz Radzinski slid a pass into his path 13 minutes from the end.

But Rooney dropped his left shoulder to lose one, poked the ball right around John Curtis to neutralise the other - then crisply dispatched a low drive to split the teams decisively.

His wild celebrations suggested a youngster who might have taken a bit of stick down at Fratton Park in December.

It also showed a player whose enthusiasm burns just as brightly when he is playing for his club against a relegation threatened visitor as it does when he plays for his country in a European Championship qualifier.

Rooney could make the rest of Europe - if not the world - sit up and take notice this summer.

And it should be a source of pride that he will do so as an Evertonian. The last time an Everton striker dominated the final stages of a major international football tournament - they sold him. As a result Gary Lineker's flirtation with Everton is only recalled on Merseyside.

It is to be hoped Everton learned their lesson back then.

Wayne Rooney and David Moyes are Everton's long termfuture.

But Alex Nyarko could still have a part to play in the short-term view.